Introduction: HIV infection affects an important number of penitentiary population, 20 % approximately. From the appearance of HAART (High Activity Anti-Retroviral Therapy) the number of deaths has fallen considerably, becoming a chronic disease. However, its effectiveness has been limited because of the fulfilling degree that it demands (the considered adhesion is round 95 %). In addition, penitentiary population shows idiosyncratic characteristics that make monitoring of the therapy difficult, as the drug use, a great impulsiveness, a different scale of values (amongst which the concession of limited importance to health is emphasized) and a lack of self-personal care habits. On the other hand, imprisonment has repercussions on their health, as much in a favourable sense (medical care with easy access, measures to restrict the drug dependency, etc.) as in an unfavourable one (a low welfare quality owing to the limited number of health workers in prison, psychosocial stress as a result of placing in jail and psychological consequences like impotence, a low self-steem, etc.).Objectives: The following objectives have been established: to evaluate antiretrovirals' adhesion to affected inmates with HIV; to compare it with the patients who are not inmates; to analyze their temporal progress; to evaluate the variables which are related to the anti-retrovirals' adhesion theoretically (patient, sociodemographic, criminal, penitentiary, psychological, disease, therapy and structural variables); and to analyze the predictive ability of these variables about anti-retrovirals' adhesion to inmates with HIV in Barcelona Men Prison (called " The Model ").Material and methods: A quantitative and qualitative longitudinal study has been carried out in which the adhesion to HAART has been evaluated in inmates with HIV through a semistructured interview and databases during a period of six months. In this study, some information about sociodemographic, criminal, penitentiary, clinical and psychological variables (study of relationships, sociocognitive, emotional), characteristics of the therapy and the adhesion to HAART has also been collected. As measures of the adhesion, a self-report on the degree of comprehensive adhesion and another one on the tablets which were not ingested were utilized in the last four days.Results: The study was initiated with 75 inmates, going down to 57 ones three months later, and going down to 40 after six months for reasons beyond the anti-retroviral therapy (transfers to other prisons, freeing and derivation to other community resources) . The level of comprehensive self-reported adhesion went from 72.5 % at the beginning of the study to 76.9 % six months later; whereas the measured adhesion through information on the ingested tablets was 76.9 % in the last four days, as much at the beginning of the study as at the end of it. Regarding the comprehensive self-reported adhesion, the most notable multiple regression analyses were the measured self-effectiveness at he beginning of the study (15.4 % six months later) and the measured fatigue (41.7 % after three months) . Regarding the tablets, which have not been ingested in the last four days, the predicted variables, which were evaluated at the beginning of the study, were depression (13.9 % after six months) and the evaluated fatigue (17 % three months later) .Conclusions: The state of mind, above all, energy, fatigue, some beliefs related to health like self-effectiveness, the perception of the benefits' and complexity's therapy are outstanding to anti-retrovirals' adhesion in inmates with HIV. That is why it would be important to implement specific programs on which these aspects were worked so that the adhesion to HAART was increased. In view of the future, it would be advisable the execution of more longitudinal and multicentral studies for which male and female inmate patients are utilized; to which as much the psychological variables as the predictive ones to the adhesion are paid special attention; and with which quantitative and qualitative methodologies are combined.